coming to terms.
my family are deeply indoctrinated in the borg, my parents have been jws since 1963 my sister and brother-in-law and their six children are in, and my brother and sister-in-law are the family?s mascot bethel elder/reg.
pioneer.
Jumper, you're right to feel used. If I were you I'd make sure that next time you're asked something from your brother, be as 'in acceptance' and kind and generous as you have been, but also assertive too, if he's on the take again. And when you're in assertive mode, quote a scripture to him. He will hate it but he might also feel his conscience pricked. Instead of just being a prick.
Remember too, Jesus was treated like scum by the pharisees.
Trumangirl
can someone explain to me what the excititment is concerning paradise earth, as the dubs see it?
paradise seems to be the carrot on a stick for witnesses, but little information seems to be offered.
from what little discription they do give it seems to me to be a boring place to be.
Question: If living forever in a paradise earth seems boring, then wouldn't living a normal-length life in paradise be boring too? necessarily? WHen I say paradise I mean someplace with reasonable weather and without civil war.
When I was a JW I always thought the paradise earth pics were silly, but that doesn't mean the concept is worthless. Also I never thought perfection meant never having disagreements. If you think about it without the WT's dodgy interpretations, it's a nice concept. It might happen one day, just not in the way the WT portrays it.
trumangirl.
as jws, most of were not allowed to partake of the emblems as we were considered unworthy.
only those of the remnant were allowed and expected to partake.
partaking meant you were heaven bound and part of that kingdom ................ well a king so to speak.. but if jw's follow the model...........would anyone have been left out of the meal?
The memorial highlights the conundrum of the division between those of the heavenly hope and the earthlings. It is supposed to be 'one flock', yet the great crowd are not part of 'the Israel of God', or 'spiritual Israel' - that only applies to the 144,000. So it is a flock of first class and second class citizens. I recall Ray Franz talked about this in one of his books. Also, only the partakers directly benefit from the memorial, yet all JWs are told that Jesus comanded they must attend memorial.
Trumangirl
remember a few years ago 97 and down even more there use to be food at the assemblys(not the big rent-astadium ones).
i remember back then probally being 5,6,7,8 they use to give out food like hots hamburgers chips and so.
any idea why there isnt anymore?
I got food poisoning from a piece of crumbed fried chicken at an assembly. I did get to miss the saturday session.
What is a hoagie?
you will soon be cordially invited to the kh.
its mem-bore-ial season and the hunt is on.....for you!.
plan your escape today!!!!
I will be going, and not because of family or the "F&D slave". One day I might not go but I will still do something on memorial night to mark the occasion. Don't need to go to a KH, you can just observe it at home with a friend or loved one.
Aunthill you make a good point about the Great Crowd being left out of forgiveness of sins. I hadn't thought of that before. It is a real mystery, whether the christian hope is for all to stay on earth, all to go to heaven, some to go to heaven and the rest stay on earth, is Christ the mediator of some or few and what does it all mean exactly...
For now I will suspend my faith and say, even if Jesus was just a man, he was still a true martyr who faced down bullies and brought in a revolutionary way of thinking. That deserves some credit IMHO.
Trumangirl
hello, just introducing myself.
i'm an inactive witness, been so for a few months now.
got put off mostly by 1914 being hammered more and more lately, the child molestation issue, the un-ngo thing and just feeling like i don't want to shoot my mouth off and get labelled apostate so best to fade out.
PS Atilla, yes hun, you can come visit me when in NZ.
remember a few years ago 97 and down even more there use to be food at the assemblys(not the big rent-astadium ones).
i remember back then probally being 5,6,7,8 they use to give out food like hots hamburgers chips and so.
any idea why there isnt anymore?
Sounds like in NZ we got better food than you guys. Years ago it was hot meals with jelly for pudding,, then it was filled rolls, pies, yummy I always looked forward to lunch, tho after 2 days of it you had to pop out to McD's for a change of feed.
When they brought in the 'bring your own food' policy, we all got told how in Eastern Europe people were so happy to just have a tomato and a piece of bread, so we got the guilts while feeling secretly miffed that we couldn't even get a cup of tea or coffee. It just meant the bros that could afford it went out to cafes and the poor ones with big families had a lot of stuff to lug around with them. Talk about not being willing to lift a finger to ease the load. I remember thinking, Jesus cared about the physical needs of the crowd, why can't we get a drink?
There was an email that did the rounds a while ago, after the 'no lunch supplies' policy came in. It was in the form of a letter from the Branch introducing a 'simplification' - no toilets, we must bring own portaloo.
Trumangirl
.
many people who post here have had similar experiences to my own: x number of years going door-to-door, informal witnessing, placing books, magazines, doing return visits, but having no one ever come into the truth?
by virtue of their efforts.. members of my own family who are still jws similarly have nothing to show for their trouble of regularly engaging in the ministry over many years (decades, actually).. any guesstimates out there as to how much of your life you wasted participating in the preaching work?
Me pioneered one year, then auxiliary, didn't have the stamina. One thing I got out of it was that I have had contact with a lot of different types of people, whereas I've noticed 'worldlies' sometimes don't meet a lot of people of a different socio-economic (sorry), racial, religious background.
I get memories of people I met on the doors who gave me advice I wish i'd taken, or said something I rejected but now realise was true. Like the old guy who said "do something useful with your life". What makes me angry is the fact I was unwittingly being used to educate people about the UN.
Interesting about the lack of increase - the 2% increase is probably due to the change of policy for old ones only having to report 15 minutes. I wonder how any new bible students come in at all considering they must check out internet before baptism. A lot of new ones who reach the meeting attendance stage, don't reach the point of being a publisher.
trumangirl
hello, just introducing myself.
i'm an inactive witness, been so for a few months now.
got put off mostly by 1914 being hammered more and more lately, the child molestation issue, the un-ngo thing and just feeling like i don't want to shoot my mouth off and get labelled apostate so best to fade out.
Wow! thanks for all the welcome posts. The storms have caused bad floods in some parts, but not much damage in my area, just trees falling down. Summertime's been cancelled in NZ! Our rumpus room got flooded. Every other time there's been heavy rain it was still dry down there, but the rain was just torrential this time. Nice day today though.
Yes Trumangirl is a reference to one of my favourite movies, very meaningful for ex-JWs. I chose a pic from it.
Paul is an enigma alright. Will check out different theories as time permits. I am studying public policy at uni.
And kia ora Chris from BoP. I'm a Wellingtonian.
What are 'apostafests'? Are these for proactive, demonstrating postates, or is it a reference to the WT's label, ie anyone who's left the org because of the org?
Cheers,
Trumangirl
FREE YA' MIND... AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW...
hello, just introducing myself.
i'm an inactive witness, been so for a few months now.
got put off mostly by 1914 being hammered more and more lately, the child molestation issue, the un-ngo thing and just feeling like i don't want to shoot my mouth off and get labelled apostate so best to fade out.
Hello, just introducing myself. I would like to have a picture to my left but don't know how to do it.
I'm an inactive witness, been so for a few months now. Got put off mostly by 1914 being hammered more and more lately, the child molestation issue, the UN-NGO thing and just feeling like I don't want to shoot my mouth off and get labelled apostate so best to fade out. Let them think i'm materialistic or an independent thinker.
I go to this forum for some light relief mostly. University study has started up again so I can't be much bothered with reading the serious spiritual sites like E-watchman and Pathways at the moment.
Any other New Zealanders come here?
Also I would like to hear from anyone who has read Joseph Malik's piece about apostle Paul not really putting women down, that he was quoting from his opposers and it got mistranslated. This is the only explanation I have read that makes sense of why Paul's letters can be so good and loving, but then have mean and illogical statements about women, but I have not seen it corroborated anywhere but from Malik.
